Affirmative.
Yeah unfortunately this Zhongshan / Guangzhou style is making many waves in Hong Kong, the idea is stone grinding rice flour into paste or milk like form and then steaming.
According to a great friend who studies these things from a food culture and history perspective, there is actually less skilled involved than the traditional Cantonese / Hong Kong way of what they call âbo lai cheung funâ, where a cloth is used with a pulling action. Kind of hard to explainâŚbut in a way this wrinkled towel / Japanese oshibori looking thing is interestingly now more popularâŚbut some say it does not taste anywhere near as good as the cheung fun slippery smooth skins that we have all come to enjoy and get used to. There is also a variant that is not cheung fun from Shunde (Chan Village Noodles), but looks more like banh cuon, and closer to rice noodles with the shar pei like ridgesâŚthey are mostly used for soaking up brisket style braise sauces or superior stock (e.g. seafood).
Itâs not so much of a hate against wrinkled towel cheung fun, but more from the perspective that HK food culture is slipping away and eroding in place ofâŚshall we say mediocrity, and people jumping on food trend bandwagons rather than preserving what is left of theirs (and treasuring itâŚmore like not doing so).
I weep for Southern California⌠a lot of the dim sum posted here generally do not appeal to me, there are clear execution flaws/shortcuts and some really disasterous looking things.
Let me throw a recommendation out there for NorCalâŚCafe Salina in Millbrae. Itâs a HK cafe, but theyâve re-purposed about a year ago to do dim sum and focusing more on tradition with a few minor modern offerings. Dragon Beaux may be good but itâs far too flashy in some regards that gets too much attention. While Salina is not always consistent, but when it does they do a damn good job. The executive dim sum chef used to work for Fook Yuen (defunct, Millbrae) amongst a few other places and he came out of retirement to do some old school items and had a chit load of work experience in Hong Kong, so heâs the real deal. The location is good, close to the airport (one exit south). They also serve dim sum all day but some offerings are not available at night (e.g. cheung fun).
8 Likes
Agreed, there is no place in LA where I really look forward to the dim sum, where there are several in the Bay Area, led by Dragon Beaux, Hong Kong Lounge (not sure what the deal with Hong Kong Lounge 2 will be with the explosion and fire) Koi Palace, Lai Hong Lounge and even Pacific Lighthouse. The problem I see is lack of innovation down here (Sea Harbour, Elite, Lunasia, King Hua have all been around for quite a few years). I wonder if one factor in the rise of the new cheung fun is the apparent lack of next generation dim sum makers in Hong Kong which was recently highlighted in news articles.
2 Likes
So true. One of the themes I am seeking in my recent food forays is traditional execution. There is a muscle memory in the preparation of food which transcends generations, and our Insta-culture is jeopardizing its transmission for the future. Once lost, the way these dishes were prepared (along with their background stories and cultural history) will be virtually impossible to recapture.
I harbor no grudge against innovation (for that allows us to evolve), yet in the same breath we cannot forget where we came from and how we got hereâŚ
3 Likes
We also have some Guangzhou style high end banquet new restaurants opening up that are supposedly branches from Southern China. Word from the Chinese foodies/gourmet community (and they are a picky bugger bunch) is that they are all not that great and super expensive, trying to be Koi Palace.
Come to think of it Koi Palace has evolved so much that they arenât Cantonese centric much, as they have to cater to a wider audience including Mainland Chinese clientele. Nothing wrong with that, but it confuses those out of the know having mixed styles, even if it is the trend. I would rather not have roast duck masking as Peking duck, Sichuan spicy, and beef chow fun on the same menu. KP is ok but not the bestâŚtheir service can be the worst.
There is also a skill drain of traditional Cantonese style food. Those are serving Cantonese style food are from China or Southern China. With Embassy Kitchen and Yumâs Bistro original chefs retired, there is no one left to carry the torch. Might as well embrace whatâs coming nextâŚ
2 Likes
Sounds like one of the places youâre describing is H L Peninsula. Are there others open?
Thanks @attran99! 
And good to know about your experiences at King Hua; we had a so-so experience a few years back and just didnât feel like going back.
1 Like
Thanks @chandavkl. Your report was one of the reasons we bookmarked it to try in the first place. Thanks for all the early findings for FTC!
Iâm glad you like the rice rolls at Longo. Seeing you and @beefnoguy discuss this, there seems to be a regional variety here. But I would say it doesnât explain how our rice rolls on our 2nd visit literally congealed into 1 giant block of rice. 
In attempting to pick up a piece, they were all stuck / melted together so that my friend picked up the entire plate of rice rolls in the process. Just seems like bad execution on that visit?
Thanks for the tip on the oatmeal bun!
Thatâs exactly what I got this past weekendâŚ
1 Like
Iâm not sure how itâs intended to be, but thereâs something to be said for congealed rice noodles, if you like the âcrepeâ portion of the cheung fun like I do. More rice noodle to eat and the filling might be more dispersed.
Mr. Champion in Arcadia offers Guangzhou style rice noodles, but theirs taste so much better than the ones Longo offers.
The texture is better too. Silky smooth, is how I would describe Championâs. Longoâs? Like baby food.
I DO like rice wrappers and always ask for a ton when I go to Korean BBQ, but, when itâs congealed, I think it loses the platonic idea of what it should be. I think something can be twisted like a towel (although I have no idea why youâd want to eat that) w/o being melted and sticky.
And while I like rice wrappers, full frontal rice wrappers w/o the balance of SOMETHING else just seems wrong. Itâs like an eclair that hasnât been sufficiently filled.
2 Likes
HL has two locations now.
The new Champagne Seafood in San Mateo (switched owners, different Chinese name) is trying to do high end banquet Guangzhou style dim sum and dinner, though none of the stone milled shar pei dog skin cheung fun.
have you tried jasmine house in alhambra? reasonably new cantonese place i thought was pretty good.
also,i liked the textural difference of the rolls at auntie pingâs.
Thanks for the report back @bulavinaka. Good to know your experience mirrored ours. Glad you got a chance to try Ruby BBQ though; they seem to be one of the few places doing some good HK BBQ work. 
1 Like
Fascinating info as usual @beefnoguy. Thank you! It is definitely sad to hear about (and see locally) as more and more dishes start disappearing from menus. Maybe weâll get a resurgence one day, or itâll all be gone (like what you said with the Hong Kong Dai Pai Dongs / âhawker standsâ ceasing to exist). 
itâs okay, that style of rice noodle sheet or w/e will never be acceptable to the vietnamese. So come down to little saigon for all your thin rice noodle sheet needs.
1 Like
Pho Tau Bay! 
I see Iâm not the only person let down by Longo. Honestly I thought it was quite bad, definitely a lack of finesse by the chefs. Iâll stick to Sea Harbour/ King Hua as my go tos.
4 Likes